of Imo and Ogun States

The Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim recently confirmed that Imo state had lost the $500million Guangdong industrial park project to Ogun state. The Chinese complained that in Imo State they were dealing with different agencies all extorting money from them, whilst treats to their lives was commonplace. Just yesterday Imo lawmaker complained to the private airlines of abandoning the Imo state airport once the Port Harcout airport was reopened.

Ogun state is near to Lagos, blessed with natural resources (Bitumen) it has an educated middle class., their governor belongs to PDP. The state wants to build an airport; their indigene has a bank (FCMB). They have two state universities.

Imo State is also near Rivers State, blessed with natural resources (Oil) an educated middle class. Their governor belongs to PDP. The state has an airport. Their indigene has a bank; (Diamond). They also have two state universities.

So how come investors prefer Ogun to Owerri? Simple quality of leadership to develop a plan to leverage on their respective greatest asset which is a nearness to a major economic centre. Without a plan the people perish. Ogun has a five year plan that encapsulated the MDG goals and SEEDS into a developmental budget that is primarily targeted at “living off” Lagos, but empowering their citizens.
I travelled to Abeokuta and I saw why the Chinese moved there, excellent roads, security, a governor with a plan to sell his state as an alternative to Lagos, -invest in Ogun without the madness of Lagos- is the slogan. Ogun is building the new multi billion dollar OK LNG project, they own a part of the new Mega city and are attracting industries by the second.
They have state owned petroleum training institute and 5 ICT centers where their indigenes earn international certification and are trained to work in the industries coming to the state. As the Governor OGB put it “we want to avoid the mistake of the South South who only pushed security guards for employment to the companies that came there”

Imo borders PH and she could have sold herself as the alternative to PH, -invest in Imo without being kidnapped- but alas she blew it. There is no deliberate plan by the government of Imo state to sell its nearness to PH. I happened to be in PH when the airport there was closed, all the passengers in PH had to transit by road to Owerri to catch a flight. Now the Imo airport was moribund, but the indigene taxi drivers got together that afternoon and formed a taxi association and introduced a tariff N6,000 to town, N12,000 to PH (daylight robbery). All the way the slogan was “milk these travelers dry”. This was a unique opportunity to perhaps fix the very bad PH to Owerri road, offer cheap hotel rates for traveler to rest in Owerri, visit the town in guided tours, or even propose the Concord hotel as the alternative hang out spot for the expatriate fleeing PH, but no, no one cared. The state government could not even build a conveyor belt at the airport for the time the PH airport was closed. What a lost opportunity.

Summary
All is not lost, but I pray for good, educated leaders in the mold of Bola Tinubu, Donald Duke and El Rufai “chop, but at least build a road or two”